Database Underground | Sean McCown

IT spooning

Sean McCown — 2008-05-14T08:06:49-08:00

Have you ever been working on a problem and had a colleague pull his chair over to watch you? And the more you do, the closer he gets because he has to see your screen. And you actually end up spooning in your chairs. Well, let me tell you, it's not only a beautiful sight, but it's a good way to build closeness among workers. Anyway, I just had like 3 other guys here at my desk, and we had this spoon train going on. It's cool though, because you've got this group of guys looking at something together and... READ MORE

The vendor that could

Sean McCown — 2008-05-12T12:33:01-08:00

It was recently brought up to me that while this blog is listed as a general DB blog, I tend to write more about MS than any other vendor. I agreed that that was the case. Then the person asked why, since there was so much other DB news out there. To that I simply replied... well, MS is the only vendor who keeps me informed of everything they do (almost). Oracle, IBM, Sybase, MySQL, etc... they never tell me anything. I get press releases from MS, I get training materials from them, I get books, I get all kinds... READ MORE

Microsoft's backup compression

Sean McCown — 2008-05-09T07:25:15-08:00

I still have a hard time getting jazzed about Katmai's backup compression. Again, it's probably because I've been using LiteSpeed for so long, and it's just not news anymore. Not to mention it still has licensing problems. I believe that I talked to someone at MS about this a while back and they said that it was their belief that it was typically enterprise customers who had backups large enough to need compression. That's just not so. There are plenty of dev systems and lesser systems that need compressed backups. Look at it this way. It's all relative, right? Because... READ MORE

Database shoplifting

Sean McCown — 2008-05-08T08:06:01-08:00

In my SSWUG newsletter this morning there was a short article on database shoplifting. It wasn't really an article as much as a musing. Anyway, Stephen goes to talk about how most data theft comes from within the company by trusted employees who turn around and use it against the company in some way. I can't really understand why they would do something like that. It's not like the companies treat them like criminals or anything when they turn in their notice. Oh, wait... strike that. So what can you do to prevent your database from being stolen? Well, I... READ MORE

First look at Red-Gate's data generator

Sean McCown — 2008-04-17T09:05:55-08:00

OK, I told you all that I'd do a Camtasia of Red-Gate's data generator, so here it is. Hope you like it. It's not showing up very well because of the right margin, but you can download the file below. Download file... READ MORE

Bloggers beware!

Sean McCown — 2008-04-16T11:01:09-08:00

It's not all that often I get to shamelessly piggyback off of the work of someone else and boost my page hits at the same time so I ride it when I can. But this story from today's Simple-Talk newsletter was not only interesting, I find that I really don't have much to add to it. I just wanted everyone to take notice. Here's the link.... READ MORE

Are remote DBAs a good idea?

Sean McCown — 2008-04-15T07:38:18-08:00

I got an email from a marketing rep a while back telling me about this company that does remote DBA work and wanted to know if I was interested in doing a story on them. Well, normally I turn stuff like that down flat because I've seen those companies before and they're typically nothing more than a glorified NOC (Network Ops Center). OK, they're probably not even that glorified, just expensive. But there was something about the way she worded it that got me curious. So I emailed her back and before long we were on the phone. Enough prelims... READ MORE

Is Windows finished?

Sean McCown — 2008-04-14T07:10:42-08:00

In my inbox last week, I got a newsletter that splashed the demise of Windows. And while that may be a pleasing thought to some, it just isn't practical. For instance, my friends at Oracle are always moaning that they're forced to use Windows systems instead of Linux, but even they agree that Linux just isn't ready for everyday business use. The argument in the newsletter was simply that Vista is so slow and bloated that it's causing problems that will cause users to switch platforms and that MS is just skating by on their reputation and not giving their... READ MORE

Scattered Data

Sean McCown — 2008-04-09T10:07:14-08:00

I know someone right now who is splitting a database into separate instances for performance purposes. Now, this happens to be a SQL Server specific installation, but the concept holds true for all the vendors. The problem is they're putting the 2nd instance on the same box, and leaving the DBs on the same disks. And not only that, they're doing double writes on some of their busiest tables (without using 2PC) to keep the instances in synch. This is just a disaster waiting to happen. But not only that, it completely defeats the original purpose for splitting it to... READ MORE

Generating data

Sean McCown — 2008-04-07T07:59:28-08:00

OK, I found a couple things this weekend that were pretty cool. First, Red-Gate has a new data generator. It's been a long time since a standalone data generator has hit the market. I'm not sure why, but so many think that they can get away with testing their apps without data to back it up. This becomes particularly important in fields like healthcare and insurance where you've got a lot of privacy issues. It's a lot smarter to generate test data than to try to figure out a way to properly obscure the sensitive portions of your data. It's... READ MORE

He gets me every year.

Sean McCown — 2008-04-01T06:38:40-08:00

Every year April 1st sneaks up on me and Steve Jones gets me with his fake SQL Server newsletter article. This year is no different. As I read his article a lot of things went through my mind. First and foremost, how the hell did he trump me on such big news? Then it was, wow, that's cool... I'm glad they finally listened. Because a lot of the stuff he talked about, I've been talking about recently both with MS and with other DBAs as well as in online articles. So this was on my mind anyway. Anyway, kudos to... READ MORE

Doctored photos

Sean McCown — 2008-03-27T06:40:06-08:00

OK, at long last, the MS guys have sent me a photo that they doctored. You can see the original in this post. And since I told them that I'd post it, here it is. This is the 2nd time that I've seen Oracle park taxis with their logo outside a SQL launch event, so what do they expect MS to do? And if MS ever does the same thing outside an Oracle launch event I'd be happy to post any pics they want me to post as well. So anyway, let's have some fun.... READ MORE

Oracle vs SQL Server

Sean McCown — 2008-03-25T09:07:58-08:00

OK, while I'm really bad about approving comments (mostly because the platform makes it so painful), I do want to answer a few of them here real quick. First and foremost because this is bothering me. I've been in DBs for 15yrs now. It's not all I do, but it's certainly what I do best. So you guys don't have to remind me again and again that there's a difference between 'SQL' and 'SQL Server'. I'm fully aware of that. However, when writing long posts, it's nice to have your audience be able to follow along in the conversation a... READ MORE

Protect you server against unwanted deletes

Sean McCown — 2008-03-24T10:13:17-08:00

I'm going to take a short break from the Oracle/SQL Server controversy to talk about file recovery. This doesn't necessarily apply to DBs, but then again, it can under the right circumstances. I was writing a process to ship trace files to another server for analyzing and I had the line commented out that actually inserts them into the table and all I did was delete them. OK, fine. So what to do. Well, not long ago I got my copy of Undelete Server from Diskeeper so I decided what better test than to try it on a real production... READ MORE

Oracle's community: part 2

Sean McCown — 2008-03-20T09:50:58-08:00

Well, it seems as though I may have struck a nerve yesterday. And I'm always surprised to see the people who are reading me. I got a lot of comments, but even more emails, and the results are mixed. I haven't added it up but the count is pretty close to have that agree with me. And that's fine. One thing I'm finding out is how passionate the Oracle people are about their DB. One thing I thought was really funny was the wide range of comments I got. Like I said, some agreed with me, some called my mother... READ MORE